Meandering Through the Mire

So, again, I got stopped in my tracks when I let the dogs out this morning!  God's color pallet never ceases to amaze me.  Not to mention it's gotten up to 57 degrees for the past 2 days.  That makes me very happy!



Come on Spring!!!












But I digress.  I really wanted to share my latest "mini-me" banks.  I've been making larger animal banks for a while starting with 3 lbs of clay.  At Christmas I got a custom order for 3 smaller banks and decided to make some for my shop as well.  So, using half the clay of the big ones I made up these babies.
 

Penguin, ladybug, snail, owl & lion.

Unfortunately, I can't charge half the price.  The clay is the least of my expenses.  It takes less time to throw the main forms but the detail work and glazing are just as time consuming.

I struggle with pricing all the time, as I think most artisans do.  Putting a value on material and time is pretty easy.  But putting a value on your creativity and experience is so abstract and subjective.  To clarify my point I did a search on Etsy for handmade mugs and found prices ranging from $2 to $12,000 (yes, I double checked the number of zeros).  I'm pretty sure self-confidence is the driving factor here in both cases.  One undervalued and the other just a wee bit inflated.  I'm sure you can figure out which one had 200+ sales and which one had none.  =/

How do you evaluate your competition?  If someone is selling something comparable to what you sell and they're charging much less or way more than you, do you adjust your prices?  Up or down?  Or can you justify them and be confident enough to keep them where they are?  Just curious to see just how conservative I am.

It's a challenge finding that happy medium.  I know I can't make a mug for $2 and I'm pretty sure no one would spend an excessive amount (I can't even bring myself to type that number again!) on anything I've made.  When I priced my first birdhouse for a studio show I was embarrassed to charge anything!  Even at the prices I'm asking now some people balk.  I've gotten past the phase of second guessing my prices.  Enough people can see the time and creativity that goes into a piece to keep me in business.  It's not quantity (though that would be awesome!) but quality craftsmanship that's taking me to my target audience.  So I'll bypass the "price it to sell" marketing strategy and plug away where I am.  I'm comfortable somewhere between having low self esteem and being an ego maniac.

Well, this post went in a completely different direction than I intended but, like I said, pricing is something I struggle with.  I guess what it boils down to is realizing and defining your own worth without getting arrogant about it.

Out of the Mud and into the Furr

I thought I'd introduce some of our household today.

We have The Boys (our teenaged offspring and a nephew) and The Kids (our dogs).  We're lab lovers and rescue lovers.  So our current pack consists of:

Madeline Anastasia (because her initials had to spell out MAN in order to offset any possibility of estrogen overtaking the testosterone in the house!) - a 6 yr old yellow Lab mix.

Princess Maddie, aka Maddie Moo, Moo Moo

At 4 months old she developed a growth in her lower jaw that was diagnosed as cancer and we were told she'd be gone within the next couple of months.  Six years later, she's still with us and has some teeth that grew in crooked (Snaggle Teeth) but we think she's beautiful, especially when she smiles!

Oliver Twist - a 4 yr old black Lab Beagle mix.

Oliver, aka Ollie, Wallie, Ollie Pops

Oliver started out life being called Malcolm but was quickly renamed when he would pick up his food dish after being fed and walk around with it very reminiscent of Oliver Twist.  He has half a tail.  Out of all of the litter mates that I saw when I picked him out only one of them had a full tail (I'm always drawn to the underdogs).  We were told his mom was a pure bred black Lab and, after examining him, our vet determined his dad was probably a Beagle because the tail defect is typical of that breed.  I'm sorry to report that Oliver has a problem.  He's a tennis ball junkie!  I don't let him bring them into the house because they get so slobbery and gross so he'll sit at the back door looking longingly at them on the deck.  He needs help.

Then there's Franklin:

Franklin, aka Frankie, Franklinstein, Froo Froo, Yittlest Putch, Spankie

Frankie's not a Lab.  He's a 2 yr old long haired Chihuahua with a Rottweiler's ego, a cat's voice and mismatched eyes.  He came part and parcel with my nephew when he moved in with us and we've become very attached to them both.  The first time he visited he was dealing with a Jesus complex.  I guess he'd never seen a pool before and didn't realize it wasn't a solid surface so he walked right in.  After I fished him out he shook off and walked back in again.  I think that's when he realized that only Jesus can walk on water.  Not Chihuahuas.  We've never had tiny dogs so it's been very amusing watching the big dogs interacting with him.  Frank and Oliver have their daily wrestle where Oliver will have Frank's whole head in his mouth (it is the same size as a tennis ball!) then lay down to let Frank jump all over him.  Who needs TV when there are dogs in the house!  =D

Score one for the Chihuahua!

The Art of Being an Artist

My dad's been trying to get me to be an "artist" since I was a kid.  I was always making crafty things and sketching.  He encouraged me to go to an art school.  Besides the fact that the thought of going to college scared the crap out of me, I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do.  I couldn't see myself as an artist.  The literature in the high school guidance office talked of Graphic Arts and that didn't appeal to me.  My four years of art classes in high school was mostly limited to painting and drawing, neither of which got me very excited.  So I did nothing.

For some reason having family and friends tell me I had talent didn't make me feel that way.  I guess I acknowledged it, to an extent, on a "crafty" level.  It wasn't until my pottery teacher's husband told me I was under pricing my birdhouse for a student studio show that I began to think of myself as marketable.  This took a while to sink in and take root.  I started selling at local shows and when I saw almost everyone who looked at my booth smile or even laugh I finally realized the definition of my gift.  I knew it was there but having third-party confirmation helped solidify it in my weak ego.  Seeing some of the joy I get from creating being passed on to someone else just from looking at one of my pieces.... priceless!

So, does being marketable make you an "artist"?  It shouldn't.  But in my mind, apparently, it does help.  Making something that excites my passion and seeing the intended impact in a strangers reaction makes me feel more like an artist (and that will be $40, please).  They're shoes I'm growing into and starting to feel more and more comfortable in.  But I need to walk around in them a lot more!